Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

A bold statement from Nintendo's president. I don't think the Switch can possibly reach Wii levels (101.63m) without a cultural phenomenon like Wii Sports.

@MumboJumbo chokes on drink H think itll do WHAT?

Then again Toto has been wrong before, unless I see another source corroborate beyond a Tweet (Why is everything via tweet, even international policy?), then meh.

This is the man who aaid it woulsnt do as well as Wii.

Also, sell as well as the wii? In what regard? Lifetime hardware? Software? Over a period of months? Launch? 2nd year on market? Its a very broad statement. Maybe he means in profit, or total revenue.

Going to need clarity as "Selling as well as Wii" can be in reference to any aspect of wii.

@BLP_Software
It depends on how approximate "about as well" is. Remember that the Switch is also a portable system and the only modern system in that space. There isn't going to be a Vita 2.0 from Sony and the 3DS is well beyond its prime. It's doing that in addition to being Nintendo's home console. How well it ultimately does is hard to guess. But if it does as well as the average portable has done (~80mill) and also attracts a few extra for being a Nintendo home console (~10mill)? It's well on its way to doing as well as the Wii

edit: it also depends on what region they're talking about. About as well as the Wii in Japan would be less than every portable system except the Vita. In the US it would be Nintendo's best performing platform other than the DS. And of course globally it's a bit more than the average portable.

@skywake

http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASHD01H4F_R00C17A2000000/

The original Nikkei article only has a small extract from Kimishima's interview. It mentions the Wii's sales of 101.63m, which leads us to believe he was making a worldwide lifetime comparison. Maybe the quote was taken out of context. We have to wait for a full transcript of the interview to find out.

As for the handheld side, Kimishima hasn't ruled out the possibility of a 3DS successor yet. We don't know for sure if the Switch is going to be the only modern system in the handheld space for the next generation. I think 80 million is still going to be a tough target to hit. Previous Nintendo handhelds were driven by exclusive mainline Pokemon titles and relied on regular hardware revisions to sustain momentum. It's still not clear whether the Switch is the new home for the Pokemon series or just a second home, and we don't know how well it lends itself to hardware revisions.

The real point in the interview to me is that they're still not even sure if make a 3DS successor. This should mean a lot in terms of Switch push and system software. Maybe i'm going bold here but, if this is true, this could hint at the so famous unified library and/or that they'll make another portable only if Switch fails. Seems incouraging to me on the Switch side of the story

@MumboJumbo
I don't see any reason why the Switch can't be all those things. Specifically I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make some kind of Switch-Mini down the road. I know the detachable JoyCons are part of the concept but there's no reason why it has to always be that way.

They could make a budget Switch that is compatible with the dock but doesn't include it. One that is compatible with the controllers but have them built in. Like the Switch equivalent of a 2DS. And at that point why do they need a separate console to cover the portable market? Especially if they can have an account system that has purchases and saves tied to an account rather than a system

@FGPackers
I'm pretty sure that their plan is to make the Switch the 3DS successor. Has been since they merged the portable and home console divisions. They want to make it just a single platform for Nintendo stuff. All the talk about the Switch not being a 3DS successor is just a safeguard. If the Switch concept tanks then they have something to fall back on

@skywake Yeah i feel the same. It's like "Switch will not replace Wii U"

Absolutely 100%. It won't (and shouldn't) happen this year because it would muddy the messaging about the central concept of the Switch but a "Switch Mini" or "Switch Junior" handheld pitched at £100-£150 and marketed differently (in the way that the 2DS has successfully been) makes so much sense.

At the same time, once they become less rigid on the concept they can also make a third "Switch Home" box that would be really cheap and effectively function as a Switch that's permanently fused to the dock.

There's no doubt at all in my mind that Nintendo is all in on the Switch - it's just a matter of what they announce and when.

That quote from Kimishima smells to overconfidence. Yes, they're pushing it far more than the Wii, but they do need to rebuild the bridges they burnt with the Wii U before aiming at Wii levels.

I wonder how much of that is just that, being president of a big company, he has to exude confidence. It's pretty much his job. Any signs of a failure of confidence on his part could instantly hurt the share price and have big implications.

His confidence might also be influenced by the physical location of his office in Japan. Switch will be incredibly successful in Japan and the negativity surrounding Nintendo following the Wii U is much weaker in Nintendo's homeland where the 3DS is king of its domain, the Xbox One is non-entity and even the Wii U didn't wipe out quite as badly as it did in the West.

Pixel Princess Blitz has just reached it's kickstarter goal. Set for 2018 release on the Switch.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lanzegames/pixel-princes...

Has NL covered this game yet? Seems really cute and charming. I'd back this if I had the cash to spare rn but alas, I'll just support the game at release.

@Redeyes Responding to your argument in the other thread. Nintendo markets the Switch as a home console because the 3DS is still selling. That's all there is to it, but you've figured that out yourself as well. If it's a success, it'll become both; and if it isn't, they still have the 3DS to fall back on.

3ds is out and we know it.

Switch will sell like Wii for the simple reason that the platform will exist for a long time. With annual iterations and all that.

http://nintendoeverything.com/miyamoto-games-made-with-pc-as-...

Assuming Bethesda got the dev kit when they released the Skyrim SE, here's explained why game come on Switch this fall. I don't care because i'm gonna get Skyrim either way

@UTXGamer I thought the Switch was the easiest platform to port to.. A year sounds absolutely terrible, so I'm pretty sure something was lost in translation there.

If this is true, and honestly i think it can be, it has just the right potential to make internet trolls and haters attack in another STUPID way the Switch. An example? I read on another forum, some days ago when tech specs came out on Nintendo site, that litium batteries are bad for Switch cause they deteriorate with time. Cmon...

Well if you can't change the battery and the battery deteriorates over time it's future as retro console is done.

@FGPackers The Li-ion batteries? Well yeah, they degrade over time. The problem is that we can't replace them ourselves. Sure, you can pay Nintendo to replace you battery, but what happens when that service ends? Unless you can bypass the battery, but their recent handhelds and the GamePad don't allow that either. On top of that, we don't know the quality of the battery either, the GamePad battery for examle is a disaster quality-wise. Li-ion batteries are also prone to leaking when they die. It's far from favourable. And although I do believe they were limited in their choice, they could've included the option for us to replace the batteries ourselves. I would've preferred that.

@jump To be fair, modern gaming consoles aren't going to be great for retro consoles. Once servers shut down, a lot of games are gonna be pretty poor without the patches or being able to download the hundreds of indie/download only games.